July 18, 2012
Trent J Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov
Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
josh.byerly@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 12-239
NASA COMPLETES ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL ORION PARACHUTE TEST
HOUSTON -- NASA completed another successful test Wednesday of the
Orion crew vehicle's parachutes high above the Arizona desert in
preparation for the spacecraft’s orbital flight test in 2014. Orion
will carry astronauts deeper into space than ever before, provide
emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and
ensure a safe re-entry and landing.
A C-17 plane dropped a test version of Orion from an altitude of
25,000 feet above the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern
Arizona. This test was the second to use an Orion craft that mimics
the full size and shape of the spacecraft.
Orion's drogue chutes were deployed between 15,000 feet and 20,000
feet, followed by the pilot parachutes, which deployed the main
landing parachutes. Orion descended about 25 feet per second, well
below its maximum designed touchdown speed, when it landed on the
desert floor.
"Across the country, NASA and industry are moving forward on the most
advanced spacecraft ever designed, conducting drop and splashdown
tests, preparing ground systems, designing software and computers and
paving the way for the future of exploration," said William
Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and
Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
"Today's parachute test in Yuma is an important reminder of the
progress being made on Orion and its ultimate mission -- enabling
NASA to meet the goal of sending humans to an asteroid and Mars."
Orion parachutes have so-called reefing lines, which when cut by a
pyrotechnic device, allow the parachute to open gradually, managing
the initial amount of drag and force on the parachute. The main
objective of the latest drop test was to determine how the entire
system would respond if one of the reefing lines was cut prematurely,
causing the three main parachutes to inflate too quickly.
Since 2007, the Orion program has conducted a vigorous parachute air
and ground test program and provided the chutes for NASA's successful
pad abort test in 2010. All of the tests build an understanding of
the chutes' technical performance for eventual human-rated
certification.
In 2014, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station in Florida on Exploration Flight Test-1. The
spacecraft will travel 3,600 miles above Earth's surface. This is 15
times farther than the International Space Station's orbit and
farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans has gone in more
than 40 years. The main flight objective is to understand Orion's
heat shield performance at speeds generated during a return from deep
space.
In 2017, Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a
heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for
human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be flexible for
launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new
missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar
system.
For more information about Orion and for video and images of
Wednesday's test, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/orion
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